Monday, March 8, 2010

A Blissful Knitting Weekend

I spent a good deal of my weekend sitting on the sunporch with my knitting while watching Ken Burns documentaries and keeping track of the wildlife in our woods. The film on Lewis and Clark was about 2 and a half hours long. I love Ken Burns' films and lucky for me, most of them are freebies on Netflix. All my other Saturdays in February have been busy so it was a special treat to have one with less busyness.

My current project is the only UFO in my possession: The Fair Isle Vest for Bob that I started last year. By spring 2009 it was getting to be a chore so I deliberately put it away, naively believing that I would remember what all my bits of yarn markers and safety pins meant. Once I got my bearings it started to move along nicely. It seems that my trusty subconscious has been working away on this for the past 9 months. I am less a slave to the pattern as it comes more intuitively now. Which is not to say I haven't had my share of frogging; but I quickly caught up each time and knew it was for the best.

Back in January I helped Sarah finish a UFO, the Jane Austen dress from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines. Sarah finished knitting the top last year. Sewing the skirt had become a roadblock for her. Since my basement had turned into Sewing Central for my quilt projects, it was natural for me to finish it for her. I can't wait to see Lily wearing it! At the bottom of the skirt I made welts with the extra fabric, just in case Lily still likes the dress after a few growth spurts. Sarah can take out the welt stitching to lengthen the dress.

During my walks I've been catching up on podcast listening. Chrissy, host of The Manic Purl podcast, has her finger on the pulse of the knitting world. In a recent podcast she shared information about The Toy Society. This movement began as a street project experiment in Australia and is spreading across the world. Basically, the participants leave handmade toys (not necessarily knitted) in random places for children to find and keep. I love the idea! In fact, I already have a knitted toy just waiting to be dropped.